The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1887-07-08
AN AMERICA., MYSTERY,
1OLONiSTS OF ROANOKE ISLAND
LOST IN 1887.

4 1oLoNIsTS OF ROANOKE ISLAND
4 LOST IN 1887.
i Their Descendants Believed to BE the
Croatan Indians of 1sS7.The Facts
4 in Very Romantic characterization
i of the Croatans of the Present Day.
/ Especial Correspondence
/ RALEIGH, N. c., June 30.
\ In 1887 Sir Walter Raleigh sent John
4 White with three vessels loaded with colo
nists to found settlement on the coast of far
Il away and almost unknown America. White
snded on TFiaas 70 noqx North Carolina, ana
i established his colony on Roanoke island. A
| short while after the departure of the feet for
England. leaving the colonists behind,
| child was born-the first on American SOIL
| To it was given the name Virginia Dare
| The new country, so auspiciously settled, was
named Virginia, after England's 'Virgin
| Queen" Elizabeth, and for the same reason
the name Virginia was given the first born.
The colonists, when the feet sailed, were busy
preparing their Yude homes, and had thrown
uP AouSa Ava dAtCA bAC 4AidLllSf VI Glo
time, to guard against danger which must
have seemed imaginary, so kind were the In
dians who lived in that region. The friend
illness of the latter was so great that they
aided the new comers in every way. The
fleet carried to England good tidings of the
settlers, ''in land well watered, with great
abundance of fish and game, with such grapes
and fruits as have not before been seen by
Englishmen."
Three years passed and then the mystery
began. 1t had been the plan that in little
while the ships would return and that the
cOlonists' numbers would be augmented by
new arrivals from England. But it was three
years before relief expedition sailed. In
1880 it reached Roanoke. Where were the
colonistss Echo only answered the question.
The people landed, searched the island
thoroughly. but not trace was there Of the
lost colony, save the outlines of the fort and
the one word "CROATAN" rudely carved
upon the trunk of tree. There were no In
dians, and the colonists had evidently left In
body. There were no graves, no evidences
of conflict; nothing to tell any tale of their
whereabouts. The word "Croatan" was
more than meaningless. The ships finally
sailed away with this awful story of the I'M
known.
For three centuries, on both sides Of the
water, the most melancholy interest has been
attached to what came to be known as "the
lost colony of Roanoke an interest which
but deepened as the years passed.
~
Now where and what was Croatan? It was
in TyrIell county, on the North Carolina
mainland, and across the sound from Ro-
anoke. 1t was there the white people went,
no doubt at the special request Of Indian
friends, who promised them a more generous |
land
10 BRIDGE in one sentence the space of |
three centuries of time, the county of Robson
must be visited, for there rests the other end |
of the mystery of 1887. The Croatans are in |
Robson. AS the descendants Of those older |
Croatans, whose name was the one link in |
chain otherwise lost, and as the descendants
also of the lost colonists of Sir Walter Ra-
legh's i'll fated expedition, they can Justly lay |
claim to more of romance than any other |
people on this continent
During the recent session Of the North Car
tllnss legislature, member from Robson
Anty, Mr. Hamilton Mcmillan, started
hought in a new direction by asking for spe-
ial aid for the Croatan Indians. He de-
Jared that great injustice had been done
them in that they had been classed as negroes.
He claimed that they were Indians, of high
class, and of historic name and fame, and
that they desired and deserved separate
schools and special aid. Three hundred years
after the colony of White was lost the de-
scendants of those colonists petition the legis-
lature for aid in educating their teachers-a
legislature sitting in city named after
Raleigh, the patron of the colony
The legislature has hearkened to the matter
and has granted separate schools and special
mid for normal schools to the Croatans, mean
while restoring them to their proper position
as Indians and as citizens.
x*m
Thus the two ends of the chain were picked
up 1t now remained to discover the links
between. To do this visit to the Croatans
became necessary, and in Mr.. McMillan's
company it was made. The county of Robe
son lies on the states southern border, ad-
joining South Carolina, and hundred miles
from Raleigh. The land there l. fertile,
much of it in swamp, filled with luxuriant
vegetation, while there are vast stretches of
the long leaf pine which formerly yielded the
staple of North Carolina's conlmerce-tar,
pitch and turpentine. The Croatans now
living there number 5000. They have en-
rolled nearly 1900 children of school age.
They have twenty-sx churches, and are
divided into Baptists and Methodists They
have in the past few months built good
schoolhouses. The very best roads in all the
state are found there. Acentury or more
ago they opened the great Lowry road from
Robson to Campbelton IA historic Scotch
and this was used as a post road
until railroads came. It was along this road
that fast riding couriers carried the tidings
Of the treaty of Ghent to Gen. Jackson at
New Orleans in 1876
Very careful inquiries were made to ascer- e.,
tain the past history of this tribe. The
Croatans came to Robson county then
Bladen) between l715 and 1882. An investi-
CATION Of land grants in their possession was
made. The Oldest grant that could be dis
covered is dated in 1882, and by it King
George II granted large tract to two chief
nen of the tribe, named Henry Berry and
James Lowry or Lowrie, who "came from Vir-
,inia." as tradition has it, for the Croatans yet
peak of eastern North Carolina as Virginia"
There is said to be grant by George III to
John White, but it cannot be discovered.
The name of John White is very suggestive.
)ver twenty names of Whites lost colonists
re today among them.
IS. So /
Many inquiries were made as to tribal 1
traditions. The tradition is common that
he tribe formerly inhabited the country
round Pamlico sound. including portions of
What are now Carteret and Hyde counties 4
nd all of Tyrrell and Dare Among the
family there IS tradition that their
feythers" tfathers) lived on the shores of
AXE Mattamuskeet, in Hyde county, before I
hey came to Robson county. The best in
ormed men say that Croatan was the name
L q place, and that the name was later given q
be tribe by the English. An intelligent i
'roatan clergyman says that the true tribal 7
anne is Hatteras Tor Hattorask, as the Croat- {
ms call it, Now here is another link The {
Iattorask Indians are the ones who were ON
soanoke island when Whites colony landed. Y
10 Indians lived habitually on the island;
aey only went there from the main land to I